School Multicultural Night

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our elementary school did “or state,” so kids whose families were from Wisconsin wore cheeseheads, that kind of thing. Definitely helpful if your roots go back 300 years to some long-since-forgotten African or European locality.

How would AAs chose a country?

I identify as Black/AA. I would choose the United States--specifically the South as I am ADOS (American Descendant of Slaves--which also includes some European/slave owner ancestry).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, my family's heritage is literal Nazis, so we don't celebrate anything from our history. I'd probably go with some generic American thing.

Agreed.

White/Europeans need to sit this one out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, my family's heritage is literal Nazis, so we don't celebrate anything from our history. I'd probably go with some generic American thing.

Agreed.

White/Europeans need to sit this one out.

To pretend that white/Europeans don't have culture or heritage is just stupid, and sets up this stupid idea that only people who are not White have any history at all. And the entirety of European history isn't just a bloodbath. Every single culture has messed-up crap in it. There is no sin-free cultural lineage.

It behooves white people to understand their culture inheritances, and pretending like they don't have any is doing no one any favors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:America is a culture too.

Yep. Only white people get to claim American culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our elementary school is having a multicultural night. It's fun and we will definitely attend. A lot of the students are immigrants or first gen.

But... what do we tell DD about our "country of origin"? My background is at least 8 western European countries and DH covers most of Eastern Europe. We aren't even sure what country dh's last name comes from (my maiden name was generic English like Jones/Smith). DD is supposed to dress up and bring food. She keeps asking, but we don't have anything for her to dress up in or foods from our ancestors. My family actually has some fun history, but it's all American (one was a revolutionary war hero and another founded a town that's named after our family). Do we choose a random European country?

I'm sure I'm overthinking this.

You're actually over and under thinking this and it is part of the problem with "diversity" and cultural pride is only for certain people (not "white).

Less than 100 years ago, there were European immigrants, especially from Eastern Europe, they lived in ethnic enclaves, the eldest didn't speak English, and they had backwards looking "national dress". They are now heirlooms in those countries.

Less than 100 years ago, it wasn't even a given that many countries were even countries (e.g. Poland). Most people's surnames have a meaning, even if the meaning is no meaning, which itself is a testament to how not notable your ancestors were. Some were just the region they were from, which itself is steeped in history.

But certain people decided that celebrating that diversity is racist, because thinking all whites are the same and have a monopoly on being American, is according to them not racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, my family's heritage is literal Nazis, so we don't celebrate anything from our history. I'd probably go with some generic American thing.

Agreed.

White/Europeans need to sit this one out.

Because zero history happened in Germany and elsewhere before 1930s.

Nazism and the nationalism across the continent that led to WWI and WWII is all based in history. Even if opportunists then started picking and choosing what the correct narrative was to fit their ideology (exactly like the fake racial conspiracies championed by the woke today).

There are few places in this world that weren't doing exactly what the Nazis were doing, or are still doing it today, deciding who is in, who is out, who can be adopted and bred out of existence, and who needs to go away. That's how you form and expand tribes and ethnic nation states.

[Anonymous]

PRobably all white kids should dress up as walking shame. I don't know what that would look like. A black cloud following them around everywhere?

[Anonymous]

Do you have a regional culture with its own cuisine? I'm Pennsylvania Dutch and we have a bunch of foods that one could bring--whoopie pies, shoofly pie, potpie, chow-chow, buttered egg noodles, etc.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I spoke to the teacher and she said they want countries, not states. I think we will just sit this one out. DH and I are from different states anyways.

I do wish they would change these events to "Family history" night. I don't feel excluded (or walking shame like someone said), but we're talking about kids who don't understand totally yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I spoke to the teacher and she said they want countries, not states. I think we will just sit this one out. DH and I are from different states anyways.

I do wish they would change these events to "Family history" night. I don't feel excluded (or walking shame like someone said), but we're talking about kids who don't understand totally yet.

I would still be comfortable doing something about the colonial U.S. The U.S. is a country, after all. Don't teach your kids they have no history/culture.

[Anonymous]

I really don't get it. I think you're upset because you think showcasing the US does not make you look interesting enough, so you wish it was family history (what a horrible suggestion to make by the way). No, no no, you Americans don't get to claim other nationalities/cultures just because you are uncomfortable with the state of your country today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really don't get it. I think you're upset because you think showcasing the US does not make you look interesting enough, so you wish it was family history (what a horrible suggestion to make by the way). No, no no, you Americans don't get to claim other nationalities/cultures just because you are uncomfortable with the state of your country today.

After years of being told that white is not a culture or something to be proud of, people are finally realizing that America has a culture and is something to be proud of. That's a positive, not a negative. Even if OP is still working on this idea, she's moving towards it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really don't get it. I think you're upset because you think showcasing the US does not make you look interesting enough, so you wish it was family history (what a horrible suggestion to make by the way). No, no no, you Americans don't get to claim other nationalities/cultures just because you are uncomfortable with the state of your country today.

OP can still claim the U.S. as her culture. Hell, there are a ton of cultural aspects of the U.S., a lot of them region specific. Even if you...idk....did some cuisine/costume from where you grew up. Like Chicago has pizza, Philly has cheesesteaks....

Culturally, the Midwest has all sorts of quirks (wear shorts and puffer jacket and say you are a Midwesterner in winter). There's a ton of stuff that isn't Nazis, slavery, trauma, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an immigrant and it bugs me a little when multi generational Americans claim another country as their heritage as I find that most of them don’t actually know much about that country. At this point your cultural background is American!

If my Chinese ancestors came here in the 1800s, what is my cultural background? I'm fairly certain most people would still say my cultural background is Chinese even if my family has been here for generations.

Maybe it's different because OP can't pinpoint their background because they are a mix of many many different backgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really don't get it. I think you're upset because you think showcasing the US does not make you look interesting enough, so you wish it was family history (what a horrible suggestion to make by the way). No, no no, you Americans don't get to claim other nationalities/cultures just because you are uncomfortable with the state of your country today.

How many generations do you have to be in the U.S. before you can no longer claim another country as heritage (according to you)? Can children of immigrants claim the other country? Can grandchildren? Great-grandchildren?